


Fight

by jennyraylen



Series: Post-TROS [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Fix-It, One Shot, POV Ben Solo, Post-Canon, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Redeemed Ben Solo, Reylo - Freeform, World Between Worlds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:35:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24465799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennyraylen/pseuds/jennyraylen
Summary: Ben Solo fights his demons in the World Between Worlds.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Post-TROS [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1767169
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Fight

**Author's Note:**

> This was loosely based off of “I Know Your Name” from Moana but ended up diverging greatly when I actually wrote it, so...yeah.

Ben breathed heavily on the thickly forested mountain, sweat running down his brow and into his eyes, mixing with his tears down his cheeks. The creature reared up, swinging its tail—

It hit him across the back, throwing him several feet away. His back burned with the cuts it had created, but they were only additions to a growing collection of injuries. Ben swallowed the pain, struggling back to his feet. With no weapon to defend himself, it was a losing battle against the monster, but he was determined to keep fighting until the end.

He looked up at the thing, the dragon head connected to a bear’s body and a spiked tail. He dodged another swing of the tail, only barely being grazed across the right arm. The remains of his sleeves were shredded, along with the rest of his dark sweater and pants, revealing the toned muscles beneath. 

He needed to get to its eyes—the weak spot in any heavily armored creature like this. Ben jumped, using the Force to push himself up over its head. Then, bracing himself for the disgusting feeling beforehand, he reached down and ripped the monster’s eye from its socket. The thing screeched, throwing him off the creature and back down to the ground. He groaned, the bloody eyeball still in his hands. He threw it away, disgusted, though he’d seen much worse gore in his lifetime. _If only I had some kind of weapon I could use to finish the thing off._

But when Ben turned, he saw the creature, laying on the ground, dead. It disappeared, as if joining the Force, leaving him alone in darkness. For the first time, Ben had a moment to really ponder his circumstances, and how long he’d been fighting that creature. It _had_ been a long time, and he had the injuries to prove it. And just like that, it was gone? No, something was wrong. He looked around, but he was completely alone in the cave.

 _Cave? Wasn’t I just in a forest?_ Before he could process this, he was thrown off his feet, landing on his back, the air knocked out of him. Ben looked toward where the attack had come—

 _No. They are dead!_ The Knights of Ren surrounded him, slowly closing in. He remembered striking them down with his grandfather’s lightsaber, given to him by…

 _Wait_. He couldn’t remember. Who had given him the saber? A girl, he knew that much, but little else. Why couldn’t he remember her? In fact, he found he couldn’t remember a great many things, such as why he was in this cave, or how he’d come to be there, or even where he’d been before then. He’d been fighting that creature for _so long._

“Kylo Ren. You betrayed us,” spoke one of the Knights, shaking him from his confused daze. “Now you must die.”

 _Kylo Ren._ No, that wasn’t his name. He was Ben Solo. Who was this Kylo Ren?

A maniacal laugh. “Kylo Ren is your name, my child.” The voice seemed to reverberate throughout the cavern, but it did not come from one of the knights. Ben found himself covering his ears, blocking out the echoes instinctively as if he were once again a young child. He shut his eyes, as if he might disappear if he willed it hard enough. _No. You don’t control me._ “Yes I do. I always have, and I always will. You will never escape me, my boy.”

Tears came to his eyes. The voice would not leave him. Panic sunk deep into his core, and he sunk to the ground, wishing he could disappear. “No, no, no,” he found himself pleading. “Please, no.”

He was on the ground, moaning with pathetic, helpless sobs. The Knights forgotten, he rocked himself back and forth, trying to ignore the voices that had haunted him from birth.

 _You will never be as strong as I,_ said the voice of Darth Vader, his grandfather.

 _You will never make your uncle proud,_ said the voice of Snoke, who had been his confidante and only friend.

 _We will never love you, not when you terrify us,_ said the voice of his father.

 _You are alone. You will always be alone,_ said the girl. _I have left you, and I will never return. You deserve oblivion._

His chest racked with uncontrollable sobs, and he sat there, for longer than he could tell. Until he was forced out of the self pity and terror by a push in the Force that sent him flying against the wall.

Ben gasped, opening his eyes to see his Knights still there, now pressing him up against the wall. 

“You must die, Ben Solo. You are weak, and you deserve death, just like the rest of us.”

He remembered now. He remembered death, the cold, dark fingers of nothingness that had engulfed him, and how he had felt its inevitability. They were right. He _did_ deserve death. He’d done so many horrible things for which he could never recompense. They were sins that deserved death as the punishment. So why didn’t he just give up? He should just let the Knights kill him as their revenge.

_No, Ben! Fight it!_

The voice was small, so small, but it stopped him from complete surrender. It was...

The girl.

Where was she?

Ben looked, but she was not there. He was alone, still surrounded by the Knights. _You’re not alone,_ he heard her say. _I’m here. Please, Ben. You have to fight it!_

He heard tears in her voice, and those tears are what pushed him to duck out of the corner, past the Knights, and knock the weapon out of one of their hands, knocking him down to the floor. She couldn’t cry. She should _never_ have to be sad again. He used his newly acquired weapon to knock down the second man, disarming him as well. The other three Knights backed away, wary, but something stopped Ben from finishing them off.

It wasn’t the girl that stopped him. It was something else, something inside him, something that had been stolen from him years ago, but that he’d never really lost. She’d just had to remind him of it. His compassion. “Go,” he said, breathing heavily. He dropped the weapon. “I won’t kill you.”

The Knights, all five of them, looked at him in both wonder and shock. Then they disappeared, just as the monster had, leaving him once again alone. Ben found he was no longer in a cave, but somewhere dark. He blinked, falling to his knees, the world seeming to spin before him. His wounds were gone, the sting in his back having disappeared, and the cuts on his arm now gone, along with the many other bruises he’d acquired in those long fights.

“Ben!”

Ben looked up, squinting against the dim light, to see _her,_ haloed in light, tears in her eyes. His heart jumped, for a moment terrified she was still sobbing for his sake. But no, these were tears of joy.

She embraced him, catching him off guard. He leaned back, arms dangling awkwardly by his side, until finally, he allowed himself to embrace her back.

“Rey,” he breathed, the word so quiet, so soft, so _unlike_ the girl it belonged to, the woman he loved. “You came. How…?”

“That’s a story for another time,” she said. “Now come on. We must make our journey back.”

“Back?”

She grinned. “Back to life. That’s why I came. I’m not losing you again. Now, come on!” She dragged him to his feet. He looked at that joy in her eyes, at that skip in her step, and decided he wasn’t giving up. She’d given him another chance. 

This time, he’d be there for her, just as she’d always been there for him.


End file.
